Near-death experiences (NDEs) are reported by many people, but researchers disagree on what an NDE actually is. The term currently describes at least three distinct phenomena: experiences during the process of dying, experiences in life-threatening or fear-of-death situations, and experiences occurring without any life-threatening circumstances. Different researchers hold nested assumptions: some view NDEs as a single entity with one explanation, while others restrict them to life-threatening events and see them as composite experiences. The analysis argues that what is labeled an NDE should be modified to circumstance-specific alterations of consciousness.
Biblical scholarship has largely avoided the terms shaman and shamanism due to historical prejudice rooted in colonial ethnocentrism and Christian superiority. Yet shamanism—defined as a practice where a practitioner alters ordinary consciousness to serve a community—is one of humanity's oldest religious patterns, now widely studied across disciplines. Applying shamanic analytical models to biblical texts can explain anomalous features such as prophecy, divination, healing, exorcism, heavenly journeys, and spirit possession, which comparative research in shamanism illuminates.